The Magnificent Montez | Page 5

had abolished
it--smiled affably on her. She sat on the laps of be-medalled generals,
veterans of Assaye and Bhurtpore, and pulled their whiskers unchecked;
and she ran wild in the compounds of the civilian big-wigs and
mercantile nabobs who, as was the custom in the days of "John
Company," had shaken the pagoda tree to their own considerable profit.
After all, as they said, when any protest filtered through to Leadenhall
Street, what were the natives for, except to be exploited; and
busybodies who took them to task were talking nonsense. Worse, they
were "disloyal."
As, however, there were adequate reasons why children could not stop
in the country indefinitely, Lola's step-father, after much anxious
consideration, decided that, since she was running wild and getting into
mischief, the best thing to do with her would be to have her brought up

by his relatives in Scotland. A suitable escort having been found and a
passage engaged, in the autumn of 1826 she was sent to Montrose,
where his own father, a "venerable man occupying the position of
provost, and sisters were living."
From India to Scotland was a considerable change. Not a change for the
better, in the opinion of the new arrival there. The Montrose household,
ruled by Captain Craigie's elderly sisters, was a dour and strict one,
informed by an atmosphere of bleak and chill Calvinism. All
enjoyment was frowned upon; pleasure was "worldly" and had to be
severely suppressed. No more petting and spoiling for the little girl.
Instead, a regime of porridge and prayers and unending lessons. As a
result the child was so wretched that, convinced her mother would
prove unsympathetic, she wrote to her step-father, begging to be sent
back to him. This, of course, was impossible. Still, when the letter,
blotted with tears, reached him in Calcutta, Captain Craigie's heart was
touched. If she was unhappy among his kinsfolk at Montrose, he would
send her somewhere else. But where? That was the question.
As luck would have it, by the same mail a second letter, offering a
solution of the problem, arrived from an Anglo-Indian friend. This was
Sir Jasper Nicolls, K.C.B., a veteran of Assaye and Bhurtpore, who had
settled down in England and wanted a young girl as companion for, and
to be brought up with, his own motherless daughter. The two got into
correspondence; and, the necessary arrangements having been
completed, little Lola Gilbert, beside herself with delight, was in the
summer of 1830 packed off to Sir Jasper's house at Bath.
"Are you sorry to leave us?" enquired the eldest Miss Craigie.
"Not a bit," was the candid response.
"Mark my words, Miss, you'll come to a bad ending," predicted the
other sourly.
III
But if Bath was to be a "bad ending," it was certainly to be a good

beginning. There, instead of bleakness and constant reproof, Lola found
herself wrapped in an atmosphere of warmth and friendliness. Sir
Jasper was kindness itself; and his daughter Fanny made the newcomer
welcome. The two girls took to one another from the first, sharing each
other's pleasures as they shared each other's studies. Thus, they blushed
and gushed when required; sewed samplers and copied texts; learned a
little French and drawing; grappled with Miss Mangnall's Questions for
the Use of Young People; practised duets and ballads; touched the
strings of the harp; wept over the poems of "L.E.L."; read Byron
surreptitiously, and the newly published Sketches by Boz openly;
admired the "Books of Beauty" and sumptuously bound "Keepsake
Annuals," edited by the Countess of Blessington and the Hon. Mrs.
Norton; laughed demurely at the antics of that elderly figure-of-fun,
"Romeo" Coates, when he took the air in the Quadrant; wondered why
that distinguished veteran, Sir Charles Napier, made a point of cutting
Sir Jasper Nicolls; curtsied to the little Princess Victoria, then staying at
the York Hotel, and turned discreetly aside when the Duchess de Berri
happened to pass; and (since they were not entirely cloistered) attended,
under the watchful eye of a governess, "select" concerts in the
Assembly Rooms (with Catalini and Garsia in the programmes) and an
occasional play at the Theatre Royal, where from time to time they had
a glimpse of Fanny Kemble and Kean and Macready; and, in short,
followed the approved curriculum of young ladies of their position in
the far off-days when William IV was King.
Although Sir Jasper had a hearty and John Bullish contempt for
foreigners--and especially for the "Froggies" he had helped to drub at
Waterloo--he felt that they, none the less, had their points; and that they
were born on the wrong side of the Channel was their misfortune,
rather than their fault. Accordingly, there was an interval in Paris,
where the two girls were sent to learn French. There, in